An Idiot’s Guide To ‘Wrestle Kingdom,’ Japan’s Most Batshit Wrestling Event

Ahh pro-wrestling. Beloved by those who get it, completely baffling to those who don’t. Whilst North America and the WWE has clearly dominated the landscape of wrestling for eons, providing us with global stars like The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin, the sport and spectacle of pro-grappling extends far beyond Vince McMahon’s paws.
And today marks the long-awaited arrival of the easily the globe’s second-biggest wrestling event: Wrestle Kingdom in Japan.

By and large there are three core types of pro-wrestling in the world, presenting three different core types of story telling. There’s North American/WWE style wrestling, which treats the sport more like a soap opera. There’s Mexican style Lucha Libre, which treats it all more like a comic book. 

And then there’s Japanese puroresu and strong-style wrestling, in which competitors simply kick the living piss out of each other for real.

The largest wrestling promotion in Japan is New Japan Pro Wrestling, and today they present Wrestle Kingdom 12, their annual January 4th show from the 55,000-seat Tokyo Dome that is second only to WrestleMania in terms of size and scale.
Thanks to a bumper year for NJPW, the show tonight is virtually guaranteed to whip significant ass. But for the casual or non-fan it might be a little much to take in. But here’s a quick couple of bullet (club) points as to what’s going down tonight, and why it’s going to own:

THE MAIN EVENT
Wrestle Kingdom 12‘s main event will see IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada put his title on the line against challenger Tetsuya Naito.
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